International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management
PurposeAlthough many scholars have acknowledged inconsistencies in the use of the retail brand te... more PurposeAlthough many scholars have acknowledged inconsistencies in the use of the retail brand term within the existing empirical literature, no one has conducted a systematic study to clarify the confusion of terms. Aiming at unifying the use of terms, this study aims to explore the terms that best express each retail brand concept, and discusses the definitions of proposed terms that can distinguish the connotation of different retail brand concepts.Design/methodology/approachThrough a systematic review, 463 articles were obtained, from which retail brand terms and their definitions were further extracted. Semantic analysis and content analysis were adopted to analyze terms and definitions, respectively.FindingsSemantically, the terms that best express four levels of retail brand concepts are own product brand, store brand, platform brand and retailer brand. Six key elements to distinguish different levels of a retail brand are identified through the content analysis of definition...
Companies expend significant financial resources on corporate social responsibility (CSR) activit... more Companies expend significant financial resources on corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities to enhance their image. This study had two objectives. By drawing on three fundamental consumer values as moderators, the first aim was to discover how a company’s CSR engagement influences consumer–company identification (CCI) and consumers’ purchase intention for its products and services. The second was to uncover the type of consumer likely to identify with a company engaging in CSR activities. This study presents an exploratory analysis of social media postings by eight companies. An empirical study is conducted using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) based on survey data from 217 questionnaires collected in Singapore. This study is one of the first to consider what type of consumer would likely identify with a company performing CSR activities. Results show that local-community-focused CSR tends to influence the CCI of egoistic consumers, while envir...
[Extract] The national innovation system (NIS) is an evolving and closely embedded system involvi... more [Extract] The national innovation system (NIS) is an evolving and closely embedded system involving private and public firms, universities, and government agencies to develop, diffuse, and exploit knowledge within a national context (Carlsson, 2006; Lundvall, 2003). Sweden and Germany have each created successful innovation systems; the Fraunhofer model in Germany involves 60 research institutes linked to a network of universities. The Fraunhofer system receives some 30% of funding from the state and 70% from industry and government contracts. Sweden is recognized as one of the top European Union (EU) countries in innovation. The Swedish RISE Holding AB is a holding company owned by the state and consists of umbrella research institutes that are externally funded. Learning from numerous efforts in creating an effective NIS, there are 3 national assets that shape its performance (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD], 1997). The first is strong public-private linkages involving public research infrastructure (research institutes and universities). The second is having labor mobility, which allows the nurturing and mobilization of people with specific knowledge and abilities. The third is industry linkages that facilitate interactions relevant to important technologies, shared knowledge and skills, and producer-supplier relationships.
[Extract] Corporate restructuring involves firms making changes to their portfolios and their org... more [Extract] Corporate restructuring involves firms making changes to their portfolios and their organizational and financial structures, and is often conducted through a sequence of asset divestment, asset acquisition, asset swapping, and ownership restructuring. It is one of the most important aspects of transitional economies because the extent of the restructuring and its effect on firm performance is a fundamental determinant of economic growth (Djankov & Murrell, 2002).
[Extract] The last two decades have witnessed a rise in the economic growth of China, with an ave... more [Extract] The last two decades have witnessed a rise in the economic growth of China, with an average annual increase in gross domestic product (GDP) of more than 9% per year. It is now generally accepted that government intervention has, at times, played a positive role in promoting economic growth in China (Linden, 2004). To develop technological competitiveness and catalyse economic growth at the nation, state, and city levels, the Chinese government has enacted a series of national high- and new-technology industrial development programs, namely, the Torch Program, within the context of the country's evolving national innovation system. Within this system, one of the important aims of Chinese government's industrial policy is to establish high-technology industrial parks and development zones. As a group, China's high-technology industrial parks and development zones have grown dramatically in recent years. The number of science and technology industrial parks and development zones approved by the State Council was 53 in 1991, and this number has increased to 254 in 2013. The total revenue for all zones reached 16,569 billion RMB in 2012. Their export achieved US$376.04 billion, 18.4% of all the foreign trade (News Letter: Torch-Centre of Ministry of Science and Technology, 2013).
This chapter examines the impact of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) on a host country'... more This chapter examines the impact of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) on a host country's economic recovery following the occurrence of a natural disaster. An assessment of the extant literature shows that little has been done to assess the nexus between inward FDI andnatural disasters, with most FDI-based studies examining the determinants of FDI inflows (Dunning, 1993; Resmini, 2000; Singh & Jun, 1995) and the relationships between FDI and economic growth (Chowdhury & Mavrotas, 2006; Nair-Reichert & Weinhold, 2001). Of those with a specific natural disaster focus, it remains inconclusive whether and how FDI interacts with the host country's economy following the occurrence of a natural disaster.
Journal of university teaching and learning practice, 2017
This study examines the effectiveness of Post-Entry English Language Assessment (PELA) as a predi... more This study examines the effectiveness of Post-Entry English Language Assessment (PELA) as a predictor of international business students’ English writing performance and academic performance. An intervention involving the implementation of contextualised English writing workshops was embedded in a specific business subject targeted at students who performed poorly on the PELA. The results reveal that PELA is a better predictor of students’ English writing performance and academic performance than their own perceptions of their English language skills, and the contextualised English writing workshops proved to be a worthwhile intervention. Students with low scores on the PELA showed significant improvement in their overall academic performance in the subject after the intervention. This improvement was reflected in their score on a major written assignment (English writing performance) and their final grade for the subject (academic performance). Moreover, students’ perceptions captu...
This study examines whether and how institutions matter in shaping firms' decoupling or symbo... more This study examines whether and how institutions matter in shaping firms' decoupling or symbolic actions through analysis of the adoption of substantive vs. symbolic restructuring programs by Chinese listed firms that are subject to delisting pressure in the period of 1998-2004. We argue that firms' decision to pursue more or less substantive restructuring would depend on the institutional environment within which they operate. The higher the level of institutional incongruence, the more likely it is for firms to decouple. In this case, decoupling is driven by firms' ability to arbitrage between local and central institutions. We conduct empirical analysis to investigate how firms' choice of substantive vs. symbolic restructuring is affected by (1) provincial-level legal environment, constructed by contract law, property law and enforcement, (2) provincial-level government support in terms of subsidies, preferential credit access, and local protectionism, and (3) the...
International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management
PurposeAlthough many scholars have acknowledged inconsistencies in the use of the retail brand te... more PurposeAlthough many scholars have acknowledged inconsistencies in the use of the retail brand term within the existing empirical literature, no one has conducted a systematic study to clarify the confusion of terms. Aiming at unifying the use of terms, this study aims to explore the terms that best express each retail brand concept, and discusses the definitions of proposed terms that can distinguish the connotation of different retail brand concepts.Design/methodology/approachThrough a systematic review, 463 articles were obtained, from which retail brand terms and their definitions were further extracted. Semantic analysis and content analysis were adopted to analyze terms and definitions, respectively.FindingsSemantically, the terms that best express four levels of retail brand concepts are own product brand, store brand, platform brand and retailer brand. Six key elements to distinguish different levels of a retail brand are identified through the content analysis of definition...
Companies expend significant financial resources on corporate social responsibility (CSR) activit... more Companies expend significant financial resources on corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities to enhance their image. This study had two objectives. By drawing on three fundamental consumer values as moderators, the first aim was to discover how a company’s CSR engagement influences consumer–company identification (CCI) and consumers’ purchase intention for its products and services. The second was to uncover the type of consumer likely to identify with a company engaging in CSR activities. This study presents an exploratory analysis of social media postings by eight companies. An empirical study is conducted using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) based on survey data from 217 questionnaires collected in Singapore. This study is one of the first to consider what type of consumer would likely identify with a company performing CSR activities. Results show that local-community-focused CSR tends to influence the CCI of egoistic consumers, while envir...
[Extract] The national innovation system (NIS) is an evolving and closely embedded system involvi... more [Extract] The national innovation system (NIS) is an evolving and closely embedded system involving private and public firms, universities, and government agencies to develop, diffuse, and exploit knowledge within a national context (Carlsson, 2006; Lundvall, 2003). Sweden and Germany have each created successful innovation systems; the Fraunhofer model in Germany involves 60 research institutes linked to a network of universities. The Fraunhofer system receives some 30% of funding from the state and 70% from industry and government contracts. Sweden is recognized as one of the top European Union (EU) countries in innovation. The Swedish RISE Holding AB is a holding company owned by the state and consists of umbrella research institutes that are externally funded. Learning from numerous efforts in creating an effective NIS, there are 3 national assets that shape its performance (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD], 1997). The first is strong public-private linkages involving public research infrastructure (research institutes and universities). The second is having labor mobility, which allows the nurturing and mobilization of people with specific knowledge and abilities. The third is industry linkages that facilitate interactions relevant to important technologies, shared knowledge and skills, and producer-supplier relationships.
[Extract] Corporate restructuring involves firms making changes to their portfolios and their org... more [Extract] Corporate restructuring involves firms making changes to their portfolios and their organizational and financial structures, and is often conducted through a sequence of asset divestment, asset acquisition, asset swapping, and ownership restructuring. It is one of the most important aspects of transitional economies because the extent of the restructuring and its effect on firm performance is a fundamental determinant of economic growth (Djankov & Murrell, 2002).
[Extract] The last two decades have witnessed a rise in the economic growth of China, with an ave... more [Extract] The last two decades have witnessed a rise in the economic growth of China, with an average annual increase in gross domestic product (GDP) of more than 9% per year. It is now generally accepted that government intervention has, at times, played a positive role in promoting economic growth in China (Linden, 2004). To develop technological competitiveness and catalyse economic growth at the nation, state, and city levels, the Chinese government has enacted a series of national high- and new-technology industrial development programs, namely, the Torch Program, within the context of the country's evolving national innovation system. Within this system, one of the important aims of Chinese government's industrial policy is to establish high-technology industrial parks and development zones. As a group, China's high-technology industrial parks and development zones have grown dramatically in recent years. The number of science and technology industrial parks and development zones approved by the State Council was 53 in 1991, and this number has increased to 254 in 2013. The total revenue for all zones reached 16,569 billion RMB in 2012. Their export achieved US$376.04 billion, 18.4% of all the foreign trade (News Letter: Torch-Centre of Ministry of Science and Technology, 2013).
This chapter examines the impact of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) on a host country'... more This chapter examines the impact of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) on a host country's economic recovery following the occurrence of a natural disaster. An assessment of the extant literature shows that little has been done to assess the nexus between inward FDI andnatural disasters, with most FDI-based studies examining the determinants of FDI inflows (Dunning, 1993; Resmini, 2000; Singh & Jun, 1995) and the relationships between FDI and economic growth (Chowdhury & Mavrotas, 2006; Nair-Reichert & Weinhold, 2001). Of those with a specific natural disaster focus, it remains inconclusive whether and how FDI interacts with the host country's economy following the occurrence of a natural disaster.
Journal of university teaching and learning practice, 2017
This study examines the effectiveness of Post-Entry English Language Assessment (PELA) as a predi... more This study examines the effectiveness of Post-Entry English Language Assessment (PELA) as a predictor of international business students’ English writing performance and academic performance. An intervention involving the implementation of contextualised English writing workshops was embedded in a specific business subject targeted at students who performed poorly on the PELA. The results reveal that PELA is a better predictor of students’ English writing performance and academic performance than their own perceptions of their English language skills, and the contextualised English writing workshops proved to be a worthwhile intervention. Students with low scores on the PELA showed significant improvement in their overall academic performance in the subject after the intervention. This improvement was reflected in their score on a major written assignment (English writing performance) and their final grade for the subject (academic performance). Moreover, students’ perceptions captu...
This study examines whether and how institutions matter in shaping firms' decoupling or symbo... more This study examines whether and how institutions matter in shaping firms' decoupling or symbolic actions through analysis of the adoption of substantive vs. symbolic restructuring programs by Chinese listed firms that are subject to delisting pressure in the period of 1998-2004. We argue that firms' decision to pursue more or less substantive restructuring would depend on the institutional environment within which they operate. The higher the level of institutional incongruence, the more likely it is for firms to decouple. In this case, decoupling is driven by firms' ability to arbitrage between local and central institutions. We conduct empirical analysis to investigate how firms' choice of substantive vs. symbolic restructuring is affected by (1) provincial-level legal environment, constructed by contract law, property law and enforcement, (2) provincial-level government support in terms of subsidies, preferential credit access, and local protectionism, and (3) the...
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